Brigantessa: Your Destination for a Bite of Southern Italy

I may have gotten lost and arrived 30 minutes late for my appointment with Francis Cretarola and his wife, Catherine Lee at the restaurant that they co-own with chef Joe Cicala, but the evening I spent at Brigantessa was definitely worth getting lost in South Philly for.

We sat down and began chatting about Cretarola’s roots in Abruzzo, a region of Italy on the same latitude as Rome that is considered to be part of southern Italy because of it’s historic inclusion in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.   Cretarola is well-versed in the history of the Italian South, and I found it fascinating to talk to him about it, especially because I myself have strong ties to my family in Sicily, and visit every summer.  After deciding they had had enough of their desk jobs, Cretarola and Lee spent 6 months living in Abruzzo and learning more about the culture and way of life.  As anyone who has spent any time in southern Italy knows, once you leave you can’t help but miss it, so they decided to bring a little taste of southern Italy to South Philly, to inject authentic vitality back into the diluted Italian-American atmosphere.  Thus, Brigantessa was born!

Being half Sicilian myself and having spent every summer of my life there, I had come to sample the Sicilian tasting menu, and I have to say, the food was pretty damn near what I have had in Sicily. That is to say, very delicious.

They started me off with three appetizers:

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Gamberi con la conza

These shrimp were juicy little nuggets of joy.  Tossed with lemon juice for tang, accompanied by toasted pistachios for crunch, and sauteed in white wine, the shrimp were simple but delicious, with clean flavors shining through.

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Lamb involtini

The lamb involtini were also quite good. Involtini are small wraps of very thin cuts of meat wrapped around a filling of bread crumbs and other flavorings, typically including raisins if you are near Palermo.  These were bursting with flavor, the juicy raisins giving a nice sweet counter note to the gamey lamb.

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Mackerel

I also enjoyed the mackerel appetizer, a cold fillet (amazingly not fishy like mackerel usually is), marinated in the sweet and sour juices of pickled onions and fresh orange slices.

Then, we moved on to the primi:

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Timballo di anellini

I was really excited for this pasta dish because family friends always make it when I go to Sicily and just finding the type of pasta itself is a challenge in the US, let alone the whole dish.  Timballo refers to a dish that is kind of molded into a particular shape, and this particular timballo is usually shaped in a bundt-like pan.  Anellini pasta (little rings) with tomato sauce is packed into the pan, which has previously been lined with fried strips of eggplant, the whole thing is baked, and then it is flipped out of the mold so it is a standing ring of eggplant slices with pasta inside. This rendition brought back sweet memories of summer.

Next, there was a ravioli dish that had the smokey flavor of ‘nduja sausage, and for a second course, there was juicy pork loin stuffed with chicken liver, resting on a bed of that flavorful tomato sauce and lightly bitter broccoli rabe.

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Cannoli!

Finally, dessert. Cannoli, or course, that most famous of Sicilian pastries. These had an ultra light freshly fried shell filled with fluffy ricotta cream, one flavored with marsala and dipped in hazelnuts, and the other flavored with espresso and dipped in mini chocolate chips.

The perfect end to a beautiful meal.

Next month there will be a menu featuring another region of southern Italy, so these particular dishes may not be offered anymore, but I am sure whatever replaces them will be equally as good.

Brigantessa

1520 East Passyunk Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19147 (between Tasker and Dickinson Streets)

-Elena Crouch, photos by Elena Crouch

 

 

 

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